It is the competency based bridge course for children seeking admission in grade one and have missed their pre-schooling at the time of implantation of NEP-2020. The document states, "Vidya Pravesh is based on the deep emphasis that NEP 2020 lays on attainment of the goals of FLN for all children. The Policy expresses the concern that since we are yet to attain universal access to ECCE, a large proportion of children already fall behind within the first few weeks of foundation stage schooling
According to the NCERT [1], Vidya Pravesh course is meant to help overcome the gap in learning, in three-month through play-based school preparation module has been proposed as an interim measure for children who have missed pre-school education.
The bridge course of three months with four hours a day is meant for familiarizing children with the school and basic literacy and numeracy. However, the NEP demands that 'curriculum must be contextualised and rooted with content and pedagogy derived from children’s life experiences that reflect the familiar i.e., the cultural and social context in which the child is growing' for which 'stories, poems, rhymes, songs, games, drama, particularly those rooted in the local and Indian context, help make language learning fun, exciting, relevant, effective, as well as culturally fulfilling.' However, it should be the course should 'develop effective communication skills for day-to-day interactions in two languages.'
"NEP 2020 has emphasised on Foundational Literacy and Numeracy (FLN) as an ‘urgent and necessary prerequisite to learning.’ This emphasis has been realised by giving special attention to Foundational Literacy through the domain of Language and Literacy Development and Foundational Numeracy through the domain of Cognitive Development...All stakeholders in school education should have clear visibility of the 'Competencies' that are expected to be achieved. Keeping track of progress in the attainment of these Competencies for every child in the Foundational Stage would allow school systems to ensure that all children receive appropriate learning opportunities towards reaching the Curricular Goals (CG)"
Way forward through competency based micro learning strategy
The research on early years of learning suggest that for children in the age group 3-8 years require one hour of learning and 2 hour of reinforcing of a competency for deep learning for its internalization. Keeping this in view the following time span is available for three month bridge course for mainstreaming children in 6 (-) ages.
Working days in three months: 70 days (23 days per month)
Effective learning hour per day of 4-hour schooling: 3 hours per day
Available learning hours for bridge schooling: 69 hours per month
Competency statements for literacy skills: 20-25
Competency statements for numeracy skills: 20- 25
Competency statements for co-curricular activities: 20-25
Implications
Development of competency based curriculum document
Development of about 100-page micro-learning material package in the form work sheets two master each competency in 3-hours
Residential teacher training: 3 weeks
School organisation: Single teacher small school setting
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